Reactions Mixed To Proposed I-95 Sound Barriers

About 45 Hallandale residents on Monday night offered mixed reactions to a proposal that barriers be erected along Interstate 95 to shield homes from traffic noise.

``An 18-foot wall would do much to alleviate the situation,`` said William Steckler, spokesman for the residents of Ro-Len Lake Gardens, an adult apartment complex adjacent to I-95 in southwestern Hallandale. ``When we purchased apartments there we had no idea traffic would become the problem that it has.``

``It would be like a prison from the back of the residence,`` she said. ``You will not see the sunsets because of the wall.``

The comments came at a 90-minute public hearing held by a citizen`s group that was formed to advise the state Department of Transportation on whether to build sound barriers in Broward County.

The state erected about two miles of walls, averaging about 16 feet in height, along I-95 in Dade County earlier this year.

Along with widening I-95 in Broward to accommodate increased traffic, the state has proposed spending about $11 million to erect 14 miles of walls at various locations.

Nat Cutler, a Hallandale city commissioner, said he was skeptical the walls provided significant relief from noise.

``A wall symbolizes, rightly or wrongly, concealment, suppression and confinement,`` Cutler said. ``I have yet to talk to one person who has driven down I-95 and has failed to comment unfavorably on the walls (in Dade).``

Cutler said Hallandale has more pressing transportation needs than the sound barriers, and he said he worried they would be unsightly.

Roy Rogers, an Arvida Corp. executive and head of the citizen`s committee, said his group would make its recommendations to the transportation department before September.

The committee has hearings scheduled at 6:30 p.m. each night through Thursday. The hearings are tonight at Hollywood City Hall, Wednesday at the Broward County Government Center in Fort Lauderdale and Thursday at Deerfield Beach City Hall.